Of Children and Monsters
by Moon Ecstasy
Summary: What does not break us in reality kills us in our dreams. It is something that Yamanaka Inoichi knows very well, considering his talents. However, he never expected this.


I do not own Naruto. If I did, a certain blue-haired parakeet would die a painful death.

This is an idea that has been one of three one-shots floating around in my head. It's obviously not canon... who knows I might make it a prequel to a story I'm working on called "Gemini and the Moon."

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_The most painful feeling we could experience is the feeling that your existence is needed by no one in this world._

_

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_It was a mission he had almost turned down.

He had definitely balked. Horrified that they would ask him to go into the mind of that... thing. In his opinion the village would have been better off if they had killed it. Never mind seeing if it was mentally stable enough to enter the Academy. Why teach it more ways to kill them? Why make it more of a threat then it already was?

Kill it while it was in the body of a child an be done with it.

Still, a mission of such a level, given by the Hokage with that firm look that booked no argument was not a mission he could turn down. Yamanaka Inoichi sighed as he headed toward the apartment where that thing stayed. Best to get this done and over with.

* * *

It was asleep when he got there. He let himself into the filthy apartment, wrinkling his nose at the smell of an unkempt house. The thing was laying on it's bed, stretched out, one hand scratching it's stomach causing the orange shirt to ride up.

It looked oddly innocent lying there. Blonde hair mussed, mouth slightly open in a soft snore. You wouldn't even realize it was such a monster if you didn't know the story. It made him worry that his own daughter would fall for that innocent act and be destroyed by the thing. He would have to warn her away from it in a very round about way once she knew who it was. He couldn't break the law after all, but he wanted desperately to keep her safe from it.

Hands flying through the seals he cast the jutsu and entered the things mind fully expecting to come face to face with the horror that was contained in the child-like body.

* * *

He did not expect something like this.

It was a maze of underground sewers. His feet splashed in water up to his ankles. Water that seemed to be clean, considering it was a sewer. Honestly, who's mind resembled sewers?

Moving forward he realized how silent it was. The odd drip of water making the only noise he could hear apart from the sloshing of his feet. Frown deepening, he continued on, looking for something that indicated that he was in a mind at all, be it monster or not. No mind was ever empty, there were rooms, there was movement. It was a part of the way the mind worked.

Kami, even when the monster had been in it's original form it had movement in it's mind. Inoichi had lost his father to the beast because of the sheer madness that was the monster's mind. They had tried to stop it using their families mind-control jutsu and all those who had tried came back to themselves raving about tornadoes of fire, and burning landscapes, and oceans of blood. The thing had been filled with madness, hatred, and pure evil.

Some, like his father, had not returned to their own bodies at all. Rather, they died, an empty shell.

There was no madness here, no fury, nothing at all... except.

There was this pressure coming from the right. He followed it, until he reached a large cavern and a set of monstrous gates, then froze in his tracks, unable to move. Finally he heard a different sound from the constant dripping: a rustling, a deep breathing, and then an evil chuckling.

**What would a Yamanaka be doing inside the mind of the brat, eh? Did the insects send you? Or were you just curious?**

The voice reverberated through him, shaking him to his core and he found he couldn't speak. He hadn't seen this monstrosity since the war. But here was undeniable proof. Proof that it was still the monster, they couldn't send it to the Academy where it could learn to unseal itself or harm the other children. They had to kill it n...

**Are you here to talk to me or just stare at me? Or are you here to see the brat? He isn't in this chamber you know. He's in one of his nightmares now, he definitely never comes here. Can't come to a place he doesn't know about and unlike you Yamanaka's, he can't explore his own mind.**

**Pity that, I'd like to be able to talk to him. Children are so easily warped.**

He didn't understand... "what child?" The Demon Fox startled him into realizing he'd spoken aloud.

**Ahh, your one of the fools that think I am the brat and he is me. Pathetic, if that were even remotely true your insect mound would be levelled by now. I am sealed in this damnable cage with no ability to even touch the child... unless he breaks. And on the road he's headed down it becomes more and more likely.**

**I anticipate the day the worthless runt stands before me and is able to hear my voice. It will make breaking free of this cage so much easier.**

"W-what?"

**Go away insect, I tire of you. If you're looking for the boy he is in a nightmare. I'm sure you can find him if you listen out for his pathetic snivelling. I can hear it from here.**

And the Fox turned away, settling into it's former lounging position. Inoichi backed away slowly before turning and running down the sewer, breathing heavily, chased by the Kyuubi's reverberating laughter.

Wasn't it... that thing... the boy... weren't they both the same? The Kyuubi no Kitsune had been sealed into the baby when it had first been born. The child would not have been able to grow up without being influenced. It didn't make sense.

He turned a corner and then another and another, not really paying attention to where he was going, his own mind whirling. Because if this was true... if the demon and the boy were truly separate... if the Kyuubi really couldn't touch... much less talk to the boy, then that meant...

He came to a sudden halt when he heard it. The sound of a child crying.

Walking slowly now, so as not to draw any attention to himself he crept through the watered sewer until he came to an archway. Dirt spilled from the entrance and when he peaked around the edge his eyes widened in shock once again.

It wasn't a room... it was Konoha.

But everything had a sickly greyish-yellow tinge to it and the people milling about were, for the most part, expressionless, moving about their daily lives.

And there was the boy.

He was running in between people, tugging at sleeves, crying, and calling out. Begging for someone to look at him. No one did.

Swallowing thickly Inoichi went after the boy as he stumbled through the streets, crying. He calmed down near the park and Inoichi was surprised to see the boy perk up. Following his gaze he nearly jumped to see the children playing in the park.

There was the Aburame and the Inuzuka boys and he recognized Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Choji. The blonde boy watched them for a bit, then moved suddenly as if to go to them. However he halted when the shadowy, less defined forms of each boys respective parents came up and led their children away.

The boy seemed to sink in upon himself and he went over to sit sideways on a tree swing. The dream shifted and there were suddenly lines of villagers standing in front of the boy, every one of them with their backs to him.

The boy curled in on himself and Inoichi knew that he was crying. Never before had he seen something so desolate in all his years as a shinobi.

* * *

He came to himself still in the same spot but he couldn't bring himself to stretch out the kinks as he normally did. He could only stare at the child sleeping before him.

Not the monster.

Not an it.

A young boy.

A child.

Inoichi gulped as the full implications of what he had seen set in.

"What have we done to you, Uzumaki Naruto?" he whispered, and he could swear he heard the Kyuubi's evil laughter echoing in his ears.

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He ended up clearing the boy as mentally stable enough to enter the Academy. He hoped against all hopes that this would somehow gain Uzumaki some friends... someone to fill the void that was the child's mind.

Easily breakable indeed. If things did not change Inoichi had no doubt that the Kyuubi would be able to bend the child to it's will and break the seal. He thought perhaps that he would nudge his daughter into ignoring the whispers about the boy. And perhaps he would talk to his old team mates Shikaku and Chouza.

Getting up to leave he met the Hokage's eyes. The man smiled softly and nodded to Inoichi with a knowing look in his eyes.

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Looks none too subtly at the review bar.


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